APPLICATIONS OF THE ALASKA PALEONTOLOGICAL DATABASE (URL: WWW.ALASKAFOSSIL.ORG) FOR GEOLOGICAL STUDIES

We have been involved in the construction of the Alaska Paleontological Database (URL: www.alaskafossil.org) for over 5 years and it currently houses 14,406 locality entries. It provides detailed information on fossils and fossil localities throughout Alaska. Data utilized comes from voluminous unpublished, internal USGS fossil reports (commonly known as E&R reports), published paleontological and geological reports available in the literature, unpublished theses, as well as unpublished oil and mining company reports.

The website has been accessed by numerous researchers throughout the world (the only continent not represented being Antarctica). Applications are multitudinous, including geological mapping, paleobiogeographic, paleoecologic, and paleoclimatic studies, terrane analysis, as well as paleontological resource issues for the National Park Service, Bureau of Land Management, and U.S. Forest Service.

In this presentation we provide examples of the basic structure of the database. In addition, we provide examples of paleobiogeographic, paleoecologic, and paleoclimatic applications from various time intervals in the Paleozoic and Mesozoic. A large majority of Alaska's accreted terranes appear to be of Siberian origin, and while they share many strong similarities in the early and middle Paleozoic, subsequent faunal differences during latest Paleozoic and early Mesozoic time suggest that they later became more widely dispersed and distant from one another in the paleo-Pacific, before they were assembled during the late Mesozoic to form Alaska as we recognize it now. This is especially borne out by late Paleozoic and Triassic faunal differentiation between southern Alaskan vs. northern Alaskan terranes. The southern terranes are typically more diverse, warmer in character, and contain thick carbonate successions, while the northern terranes (i.e. Arctic Alaska), contain less diverse, cooler-water faunas, and have much more poorly developed carbonate rocks. Examples of these faunal differences are illustrated graphically.